Duke University is a machine, a massive corporation that in many ways serves as a microcosm for the systems, structures, flaws and opportunities of the world located just past the university’s forests. It is because of this that when asked by many a stranger on LinkedIn or via email to speak about my winding journey as a journalist, consultant, impact investor, philanthropist, organizer, and oral historian, I more often than not harken my grit, my confidence, and my fortitude to the stream of noes, bureaucratic roadblocks, and interdisciplinary pivots I experienced as a leader on Duke’s campus.
Further, I can attribute my conviction for environmental justice and community empowerment to a missing representation of people who looked like me in the environmental classes I was taking and among the faculty teaching those topics. That missing piece, again a reflection of the spaces I have since entered as a young professional, inspired me to push for change within the microbiome of the university. And those experiences taught me how to be effective in pushing for said change at scale.
At Duke I helped establish a number of organizations from the Undergraduate Environmental Union to the Environmental Justice Campus Committee and Enviro-Art Gallery Showcase. I was the planner for events from the Ruby’s First Birthday bash in undergrad to a massive series of programs celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Environmental Justice Movement as a grad student. I was a very vocal member of the Campus Sustainability Committee for three years and the Board of Trustees Climate Change and Sustainability Task Force. Often the youngest person in the room, and one of the few students to pull a chair directly up to Duke’s deans and administrators and make conversation like I was meant to be there.
These are the experiences that taught me how to build from scratch, to pester the powerful, and be persistent in organizing for a seat at the table – the experiences that gave me the vocabulary and self-assurance to manage a room, allowing me to hold space with some of the highest representatives of government agencies, corporate leadership, and icons and legends of the Civil Rights and Environmental Justice movements. So when asked now what the secret sauce was for getting and staying where I am, I recount what Duke taught me: to stay true to my values and passions despite underrepresentation, fill gaps and create opportunity by any means necessary, and exist outside of silos because impact is had and held across disciplines … and that sometimes impact is knowing how to annoy the heck out of people in power.